One of Blizzard’s April Fools Jokes was a 2600 version of World of Warcraft. Leave it to the gaming community to make it a reality. While not technically a 2600 title (it’s not playable on an emulator), the Windows version is now available for download. The massive, hard drive filling 2MB file will net you about 20 minutes of gameplay, and graphics more sophisticated than the real thing.*

The Molten Core as it’s called is a two-player adventure, so grab a friend for this one. Hey, it has to be as authentic as possible, right?

*That wasn’t a joke.

It’s hard to argue about much when you’re getting 16 SNK titles in one compilation. The only thing that can go wrong is game selection and emulation, and while SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 does have some trouble with both, this is undoubtedly a fine compilation.

If you’re looking into this set, then the games are what matters. Vol. 1 offers a wide array of titles from the early and late Geo eras. The best of the lot includes a number of titles almost too numerous to mention.

Needless to say, you’ll be spending a lot of time with Samurai Shodown, King of Fighters 94, Baseball Stars 2, Neo Turf Masters, Shock Troopers, Metal Slug, Magician Lord, and Last Resort. All of those are true SNK classics, and worthy for any portable console fan.

On the other hand, SNK also chose to toss a few clunkers in here. Dull beat-em-ups Burning Fight and Sengoku are lost causes. Better choices would have been Sengoku 3 (a huge improvement) and Mutation Nation. The original Fatal Fury is bland, King of the Monsters is a button masher galore (although a mild curiosity), Art of Fighting was the worst of the three game series, and Super Sidekicks is a fast-paced soccer game that’s wholly forgettable.

That said, the number of high quality titles far outweigh the negative, and nostalgia may help carry some of the lesser games into the added value category. Emulation on all games is handled nicely, with a few hiccups. Extensive loading is evident, even during the game. Shock Troopers is especially frustrating. Some sound effects either don’t play, or come in late in King of Fighters 94. These are minor problems, but purists will be put off.

Each game comes with a number of achievements per se. Performing certain tasks unlocks move lists, music, and artwork. There are no extra games to unlock, so performing the toughest tasks is purely one for the dedicated gamer. Multi-player is included, although sadly it’s only local. Putting these games online would have made this an easy buy, especially since it’s double the price of its PlayStation 2 counterpart.

Standard options exist for each game, including difficulty, screen size, and control options. Given the button configuration on the PSP, this does lead to a few problems in terms of accuracy. Samurai Shodown has been turned into a six-button fighter instead of a four button one, purely because the button layout doesn’t allow for the usual set-up of a Neo Geo pad/arcade cabinet. Also, it’s annoying to be forced to save all changes to a memory card every time for those to go into effect.

Portability ends up being the selling point here, and likely why the price has doubled. If taking these games on the road is worth it, then you’ll be on the receiving end of a fine collection of retro titles worthy of your time. Otherwise, there’s no reason to play this on the PSP as opposed to its PlayStation 2 counterpart.

An updated version of King of Fighters 98 entitled Ultimate Match will be coming to the Live Arcade on an unspecified date. The release was leaked on a Tokyo Game Show list. Japanese gamers have had the game since the summer of this year on the PS2. Those US gamers who would prefer the PS2 version can gain the disc based version this February and you can find it for pre-order at game retailers (i.e., GameStop) for $20. One can assume the Live Arcade version will be cheaper as the only game to hit $20 on the service was Penny Arcade Adventures.

Ultimate Match adds new characters, stages, and remixed music, all advantages over the original. Purists will whine, but it’s not as if the original doesn’t exist anymore.

It’s amazing what 13 years can give you. For example, it’s been 13 years since the original Red Alert landed on PCs, and now you can get it for absolutely free. Nope, you don’t even have to pay shipping since it’s a download as a promotion for the upcoming Red Alert 3. Oh, and if you pre-order the third game, you can get Red Alert 2 for free. In other words, you get three games for the price of one.

Of course, if you’re a true cheap ass, you could just wait 13 years and get Red Alert 3 for free.

It’s great to see Neo Geo titles on the Virtual Console. However, it’s stuff like Samurai Shodown II that separated the hardware from any other of its time. In fact, it’s easily one of my personal all time favorites, right behind Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo… which is my personal all time favorite.

Shodown’s sequel did it all right. It added more characters, the visuals were stunning, and for a 2-D fighter, it offers one of the deepest fighting engines ever created. Battles are purely defensive struggles, but it also offers enough ways to get around those who just want to sit in a corner and block.

Shodown II is one of the more common games for the AES Geo hardware, only going for about $25 or $30 on today’s market. However, for only 900 Wii Points, you’re getting a deal… aside from lacking the original controller.

Neo Turf Masters is special to me personally. I loved it enough after playing it on MAME I tried tracking down an actual Neo Geo cart. When I realized what it goes for (four digits at least), I ended up paying a ton for a bootleg cart just to have it. The game’s speed, beautiful visuals (and animation), and pick up and play mechanics make it a steal for $8.00 on the Virtual Console.

And just in case you’re curious, the miniature version released for the Neo Geo Pocket plays just as well, plus adds features. The console and game can be had cheap online. It’s worth the money.

So back in the day, myself and Eric modified this Doom II: Hell on Earth map called ultimate.wad and lost at least three months of our adolescence playing endless deathmatches all night every night. And we named it, wait for it, ultimat2.wad which, to my current dismay as of the date of this post, returns no Google search results. I find it somewhat disturbing that such important 1’s and 0’s could be gone with no trace left behind.

My hard drives that may have contained the files most likely died long ago, but surely the Internet has a more robust information storage and retrieval system? Or, perhaps the capability lies only inside mankind. I am therefore calling upon the entire Internet, man and machine working together, to summon ultimat2.wad for us here at MPG.

It’s not a typo, it was like 1995 and we were restricted by the 8.3 filename convention of MS-DOS.

ULTIMAT2.WAD

You are now charged with hooking up all your old 500 meg IDE drives and searching for this lost piece of awesome knowledge. When you find it, you will know it is probably the finest Doom II deathmatch map ever (mostly accidentally) created. There will be a prize for a verified copy of ultimat2.wad. That’s all.

Originally though, that wasn’t the case. Master Chief was nameless, he looked thinner, and ran around in third person. This original Apple keynote where they revealed the game for the first time offers an interesting perspective on the game, pushing it’s then incredible graphics. The main Halo theme is already in place, meaning maestro Marty O’Donnell was in place from the get go. Many of the ship designs are almost spot-on with their final versions.

For a deeper look, long defunct PC gaming magazine Incite (which also had a console based spin-off of the same name and retailed for only a $1) had a preview on its included CD-ROM. It shows the early physics, and gives and idea of how the third person view would have worked. AI hasn’t been programmed, and Master Chief is still nameless. The foundation is there, but Halo came a long way before it landed on the Xbox.

Way back in 1995, (yes, in the last millennium) I was reading a gaming magazine (yes, it was made out of paper) and it was touting a title named ‘Confirmed Kill’ that was set to revolutionize interactive and simulation gaming for the PC. The screenshots were enough to captivate me. The article wrote of battles fought between literally *dozens* of real life, real time players in a World War II simulated air-combat theatre. This, quite literally, blew my mind.

Check out the rest of my nostalgic rambling after the jump.

I had to see it for myself. Went out, picked up a Suncom F15 E Talon joystick, which in my opinion is still the best non-force-feedback stick out there if you can find one that still works. Mine does. Got me a set of CH Rudder Pedals, a shiny new Supra 28.8 (!!!!1) external modem, and took to the skies. Sort of.

That was one of the best points about Warbirds (Confirmed Kill when I first started in beta testing), was that there was a pretty steep learning curve. While the graphics were as good as they could be back then while still preserving playable packet latency, the physics were what set this game apart from everything else. All physics and plane models, even the cockpit artwork, were as accurate as possible to facilitate really rewarding, and sometimes very frustrating, game play. I think it took me about an hour to figure out how to get my F4U Corsair off the runway in one piece. Dogfighting was another issue altogether; that took years to master.

I played CK through it’s beta, and then when it went through some changes and became Warbirds, it really started evolving. These guys did a great job keeping the game playable while expanding the game’s universe through time. They always kept the servers up, even when the number of users logged on topped 150 plus. This, I’m sure, was truly a feat in the dial-up days of DOS front-end gaming. While not specifically a RPG, Warbirds was also huge on the social gaming front. It brought people together from across the real globe, and pitted them against each other in nice ANSI blue skies. There was real camaraderie there, I myself was in a squad called the 356th FG, as well as a small stint with an ‘elite’ group dubbed the Shadow Knights. We had lots of great times on Warbirds (I’m sure our webmaster Eric (callsign: ‘cube’) has lots to say about it too) and I spent years playing it. These are the qualities that people are discovering only now, in communities like Steam and XBox Live.

Warbirds was truly ahead of its time and welcomed a new genre of games to people on the PC platform. Warbirds, along with AirWarrior and other early online simulations, really changed the landscape of multiplayer gaming. And, apparently, people still play Warbirds today! I can’t seem to find much info about our glory beta days of this game, perhaps it was too long ago for the Internet to remember. It’s important to go back to your roots, my friends. Does anyone remember this game? Let us know in our Forums. I’d love re-live some of the first days of true MMO gaming.

Special thanks to tm-t AKA -meng- for the screenshot. This may be the only proof that I ever played this game (callsign: ‘wolf’).

Now, get off my lawn.

These games are certainly not new and do not come close to the awesome graphics power found in Call of Duty 4 or the new Half-Life chronicles, but they are still awesome. We are always linking to games that have recently come out, require some serious hardware, or are simply too expensive. I thought it was time to throw together a nice list of games you can play online for free, download for free, or register to get. ALL AT NO COST.

First up is the always awesome lineup from CNET including 10 titles you can download absolutely free! They include:
Abuse
Americas Army: Special Forces
Command and Conquer (yes the first one)
F.E.A.R. (multiplayer goodness!)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
..and more!

Here is another set of games you can download all for free from DOSGamesArchive.com
This list includes:
Prince of Persia (4D)
Mario
Aladdin
DOOM
SimCity 2000
Duke Nukem 3D
&
Scorched Earth
+many more!

Looking for the real oldies?

Then checkout OldGames.NU which has every old system on the planet ready to play. I am talking about games on the Amiga system, GameGear, NEO Geo, and the list goes on.

This list should keep you busy for awhile, but if you know of a great list that I missed please let me know. Sometimes with all the new games that are out there is it nice to see where it all started. After all, these game developers are standing on the shoulders of giants. Like the makers of Balloon Fight for Ninendo